Adaptation: book I

  Carmella relaxed but otherwise didn’t move.

  Bilal was curious. There was something else here. He stretched the filaments of his sensors and found the old injury from the wolf attack. When he had repaired her, he hadn’t been able to focus on making her perfect, only keeping her alive because he was near death himself. Now he could see the scarring and was ashamed that he’d left such a mess.

  Bilal stimulated Carmella’s body to reproduce healthy cells and forced the scar tissue to recede and to disappear. He went over his work and made necessary repairs and several improvements.

  Bilal retracted his sensors, swallowed the last of the milk, captured the last drop with a flick of his tongue, and released her nipple.

  Carmella watched him with wide eyes. “What are you doing?”

  “I fixed it. The injury.”

  “Which one?”

  “From the wolf bite. Raj found it. He was trying to explore it.”

  She tore her eyes from his to her son, who had cried himself to sleep in the comfortable fur bed Wolf provided. “I want to see it.”

  Bilal glanced down at her exposed breast where milk dripped steadily.

  “Not that. Your tongue. Those … things. Your sensors.”

  He opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue. She saw that his tongue was longer than normal but not in a deformed way. Then then little translucent strings pushed from its tip, stretching and reaching forward. She was mesmerized as she watched them wave in the air.

  She reached up and placed her fingers in front of his lips, and the sensors touched her fingers lightly. Though she wanted to, she didn’t snatch her fingers away. She took a deep breath and met his eyes. “I thought you said that Raj’s tentacle will come from that patch on his side.”

  Bilal’s sensors returned to their hiding place, and he closed his mouth. “It will. But apparently he will have more than one set of sensors.”

  “Well, how many?”

  “I don’t know yet. I’ll examine him again later and try to find them all. But this is a good thing. He can be more helpful if he has more areas that he can link from.”

  Carmella covered her breast and moved off Bilal’s lap.

  Bilal instantly missed her warmth.

  She knelt on the floor before Wolf and gently lifted Raj, who made a face but continued to sleep. She cradled him in her arms and looked at Bilal. “He’s okay? I didn’t hurt him when I dropped him, did I?”

  “He’s pretty tough.”

  She looked down at her son. “He was … exploring?”

  “Yes. He loves you Carmella. He would never intentionally hurt you.” Bilal suspected it went further than that but found his suspicions hard to believe because Raj was only a few months old.

  It appeared that Raj had been trying to heal the old wound to his mother’s breast.

  ~***~

  Carmella tossed and turned in her bed that night. Raj could sleep through the night and had been moved to his own room weeks ago. With his parents’ bedrooms only steps away, either could be in his room to tend to his needs in seconds.

  She had been afraid to nurse him later in the evening, but Bilal sat next to her assuring her that he wouldn’t hurt her again—and he hadn’t. Carmella stared into Raj’s eyes as he nursed and sensed his awareness and intelligence. His eyes bore into hers, and Carmella felt unsettled, wishing she could understand the meaning behind that look.

  She bathed him, changed him, and kissed him. “I won’t baby talk to you again. No more baby talk. I don’t know how much you can understand, but I know that you didn’t mean to hurt me, okay? I know that. Just don’t do that again, okay?”

  He stared at her calmly, and she felt like a dumbass. This was a baby, only a little baby. Because one of his fathers was an alien with heightened abilities didn’t mean that Raj was a little adult. She kissed him again and placed him in his crib. Wolf came in and lay by the crib. She gave Wolf an appreciative rub and went to bed.

  But sleep was hard to come by. This was a strange life. She had a baby who could use his tongue to create unimaginable pain, and her baby’s daddy …Carmella closed her eyes trying not to remember the sight of Bilal’s head against her breast, her nipple captured in his warm mouth. Once the pain left there was nothing but a sense of pleasure so pure that it shocked her. She hated to admit it, but it felt good. It took all of her control not to wrap her legs around him and beg him to …

  Carmella covered her face in shame. What was she thinking?! She drew in a shuddering breath and bit her lip, squeezing her thighs together in an attempt to rid of herself of the erotic throbbing there. Her memory of Bilal’s hands stroking his penis while in the bath flooded her memory, the sight of it growing caused her to groan.

  She had not been touched in that way in so long. She thought about the way his throat had bobbed as he swallowed her milk, the way her body pulsed, and the explosive swelling between her thighs. Her breath shot out of her mouth, and she swallowed her cry of pleasure. Oh God … no way was she …

  Carmella rocked her hips and sighed until the pleasure ebbed away and her heartbeat stopped racing.

  ~***~

  Bilal liked listening to his family sleep each night. No matter how tired his body was, he always made sure to listen to the soft breaths of Raj and Carmella’s low, even breathing. It always put him to sleep. Tonight she didn’t sleep. He could tell that she tossed and turned.

  Bilal closed his eyes and opened his mouth. The sensors in his tongue pushed forward and tested the air. He could “see” her through her breathing and heart rate. Bilal turned on his side and listened, recognizing the familiar sounds for what they were—self-pleasuring. Of course he knew the sound. He pleasured himself nearly every night while remembering videos that Lawrence liked to watch.

  “Hey, B,” Lawrence had said. “See if you can find some good porn when you’re down there …”

  He understood it all now. Sometimes the remembered images helped fire his nightly masturbation session, but he always pictured Carmella in the scenes because it seemed everything was about Carmella.

  He listened to her soft sighs and tasted her passion on his sensors. His hand moved down his torso and beneath his pajamas where he found his penis hard and throbbing. Bilal closed his eyes while he rubbed his fingers over the hard flesh.

  He knew that his penis was impressive because he’d seen enough porn. He also he knew that he was more endowed than either of his friends. It wasn’t his design to make himself that way, and he wondered if it felt so good to touch himself because there was more to feel.

  He wrapped his fingers around the hard flesh and squeezed slightly, shuddering at the sensation. When semen oozed from hole at the tip, Bilal rubbed it into the head and shaft to create a lubricant. He sighed and suppressed his groans. Touching himself felt good, but it would not be good to have Carmella hear.

  Bilal’s fist moved rapidly over his shaft as he thought about dark nipples, large areolas, and the taste of sweet milk …

  His ejaculation was so powerful that he had to bite back his cry of pleasure.

  He couldn’t stop thinking about her.

  Chapter 23

  ~Turning the Corner~

  Carmella was in the kitchen preparing lunch. It was a rare to find her without the baby propped up on her hip or asleep. Bilal was in the living room with Raj, and she considered how far she had come. She remembered once telling Jody that she didn’t want her baby near one of “those things.”

  Now her baby was partially one of “those things.”

  Every so often she would have a fit of uncertainty concerning the direction her life had taken, and it usually went away as soon as she set eyes on her beautiful baby boy. When he smiled at her or kicked his pudgy feet and played with his toes, she was overwhelmed with love for him.

  Carmella wondered if it was love for her son that changed her feelings for Bilal so drastically. It wasn’t because she had been alone for so long. Lonely people did not resort to going out of char
acter or departing from their true natures. Racists might be lonely and keep company with other ethnicities if forced to, but they would still be racist, wouldn’t they?

  Carmella decided that her change in feelings had nothing to do with her need for company but her growth and acceptance of the unknown. She was willing to accept Bilal as a man because she knew he was no more or less a human than she was.

  She poured the rice into the saucepan. She was ashamed that she felt physically attracted to Bilal. He was someone she accepted as her equal, but he wasn’t really a man even if he had a nice penis. Her cheeks grew warm. He was incredibly attractive to look at, and he was strong. He was intelligent and had the capacity for emotions. So what did it matter that he was an alien and the body he resided in wasn’t the one he was born with?

  She had no idea how old Bilal was. He had to be younger than her, and she was damn near forty. She felt her cheeks warm again. What in the hell was she thinking? He was a fucking alien, and that was more important than anything else. She rubbed her elbows and decided that she would ask him.

  She opened up two cans of black beans and smiled. Bilal liked black beans and rice, especially when she took the time to dice onions and peppers into them. Unfortunately the bell peppers were all gone—

  “Ugh!” Bilal cried from the living room.

  “Bilal?” Carmella nearly dropped the can as she dashed into the front room.

  Bilal turned to her with a scowl on his face.

  Raj was on the couch playing with his toes, much of his body covered in shit.

  Carmella stopped as she was hit with the stench.

  Bilal’s face twisted in disgust. “That is the most horrible smell. That is worse than cow and chicken feces. That smells worse than my feces!”

  Carmella gasped and hurried to the couch where Raj gave her a nonchalant look before gurgling and concentrating on his toes again. “What happened?”

  Bilal backed away from the couch. “I decided I would help by changing Raj’s diaper. I didn’t think it would be difficult. You make it look easy. It was a mistake. Feces began to pour from his behind.” He gave Raj an accusatory look. “He began to defecate as soon as I took the diaper off.”

  Luckily Bilal had placed the baby on top of the afghan, but shit was all over her child. “Oh, Raj, what did you do to your daddy?” She turned to Bilal. “Put the teapot on so I can give him a quick bath.”

  “I need a bath, too,” Bilal said. “He urinated on me.”

  Carmella tried not to laugh, but she couldn’t help it because Bilal looked so helpless covered in baby urine.

  Bilal cocked his head at her. “Why is this funny?”

  She tried to stifle her laughter. “I’m sorry, Bilal. I can’t help it. You look so funny!”

  He shook his head, turned, and headed for the kitchen.

  “Oh Bilal, I didn’t mean to laugh at you! Where are you going?”

  “To put on the teapot so that I can give Raj a bath—or better yet, so that you can.”

  Raj looked at her curiously, smiled, and gurgled.

  “You got him good,” Carmella said. “But how’d you get your own shit on your shoulders?”

  She undressed Raj and tossed the soiled clothing into the corner to be washed before they dried and became impossible to deal with. She carried Raj into the kitchen.

  Bilal stood by the cook stove waiting for the teapot to warm up. He had removed his shirt and was wearing only jeans and boots. His long black hair fell down his back in unruly waves.

  The sight of Bilal stopped Carmella in her tracks.

  “The water should be warm enough now,” Bilal said.

  “Oh, uh, yeah.” She handed him his son while she put a stopper in the drain and poured the water into the sink.

  Bilal held Raj out an arm’s length away from him. “You smell.”

  Raj gurgled happily.

  Carmella shook her head and hid a grin. “You know, babies are prone to pooping and peeing on themselves—and others. Don’t take it personal.”

  Bilal’s eyebrows gathered as he passed the soiled baby back to her. “I know that. But he waited until the diaper was off before defecating.”

  She had another spontaneous eruption of laughter, which she tried to mask by coughing.

  Bilal was far from pleased as he tested the water. “It’s warm. Put him in. I’ll start his wash.” He returned a minute later with baby wash, a washcloth, and a towel, which he placed on the counter.

  Raj had a bath every night. Bilal knew the routine well, and despite what he had said about the wash, he began bathing the baby.

  Carmella peeked at him. He was handy and so cute with or without a shirt, but she preferred without. She allowed her eyes to scan his perfectly toned torso, which had returned to an even-tempered tannish gray. She wished everyone’s moods would be as transparent. What would he think if he knew what she was thinking now? What color would he turn? She looked away.

  Raj was busy splashing and slapping the surface of the water as his dad washed him. Both father and son held exactly the same serious expressions on their faces as they concentrated on their perspective tasks. Raj could sit up on his own, but so far only in the sink. She thought Raj was advanced for a two-month-old, but it had been a long time since she’d been around a baby. Maybe it was normal.

  Bilal finished washing his son, swept his long hair out of his way, leaned forward, and kissed the top of Raj’s head.

  Carmella blinked. She had never seen Bilal do that even though she kissed Raj every day—maybe every hour. Something cracked in Carmella. Maybe it was the last straw she had clung to in an attempt to hold on to the last piece of her past. But her past only held hatred and mistrust, and it was time to let that go. She suddenly wanted to kiss Bilal and to be kissed in return. Her heart ached at the longing. Bilal loved her son, their son. Even when he was disgusted at having to face his poop and pee, he still loved his son.

  Carmella realized that she trusted Bilal implicitly.

  She leaned forward, wanting her lips to touch his sensuous ones, wanting to run her fingers through his silky strands.

  Bilal’s turned and met her eyes with a piercing stare.

  She froze, her mouth open.

  “What is that?” he asked. “Is something burning?”

  “Oh shit!” She jumped to attention and hurried to the stove where smoke billowed from the pot of rice. She removed the pot and set it on the counter. The rice was ruined. “Well damn.”

  “It’s okay.” Bilal wrapped Raj in a towel. “I’ll eat it.”

  “You’ll eat anything.”

  He shrugged. “Yes. I probably would, but I wouldn’t enjoy it.” He smiled. “I always enjoy your meals, though.”

  Her heart fluttered. “You might not enjoy this.” She tilted the pot toward him.

  Bilal looked into the pot. “Rice is normally white, isn’t it?”

  “Maybe I can scoop off the top,” she said.

  His eyes scanned her face until she turned back to the stove and fiddled with the cans of beans.

  “I’ll put a diaper on Raj,” Bilal said as he left the kitchen.

  “And a clean jumper, okay?” Carmella called.

  “Okay.”

  Bilal carried his son upstairs to his bedroom and placed him on the changing table. “Raj,” he whispered, “please do not pee or poop.”

  Bilal figured out how to put on the disposable diaper and dressed Raj in a clean jumper. He lifted the baby in his arms and looked at him.

  Raj reached out for some of his father’s hair to pull, and Bilal let him until he tried to put it into his drooling mouth.

  Bilal carefully untwined it from around Raj’s pudgy little fingers and smiled at him. Bilal thought about Carmella and the way her heartbeat began to race when he smiled at her in the kitchen. What did that mean? No, he knew what it meant. Did his smile excite her? He shook his head and smiled again, this time to himself.

  ~***~

  After putting Raj into
his crib for a nap, Bilal returned to the kitchen wearing a clean shirt. The table held two bowls of black beans and the rice Carmella had salvaged. Slices of fresh baked bread were placed on the table alongside freshly churned butter and two bottles of iced tea.

  Carmella sat in her usual seat. “Raj asleep?”

  “He will be shortly. He is playing with his feet again. For some reason he finds his toes interesting.”

  She looked at Bilal. “Well, have a seat.”

  He took a deep breath. It was now or never time. He had a more than a suspicion, and he needed to know if he was right.

  Bilal held out his hand to her.

  Carmella frowned and slowly placed her hand in his.

  He pulled her gently until she was standing before him.

  “Carmella.” He swallowed. “I get a feeling in my belly that is not like hunger or fullness. They call it butterflies, I think. Sometimes my heart races and my palms sweat. Sometimes I have a difficult time catching my breath. It mostly happens when I am thinking about you, which means it happens all of the time.”

  Carmella’s mouth dropped open. “What?”

  Bilal took a deep breath and leaned forward. He knew the feeling he had was one she shared as well. Her heart raced, her breathing became shallow, and her hands trembled slightly. If all that happened when she thought of him …

  Their lips met, and he half-expected her to pull back.

  She didn’t.

  He sighed against her lips then reached up to touch the line of her jaw. Bilal kissed her, and although he had never kissed anyone like this before, it wasn’t foreign to him. He’d seen it done countless times. He closed his eyes and thought about what he’d seen in movies or while observing his friends and other humans. As he kissed her, he quickly forgot to think. He became awash with emotion brought on by the proximity of her body.

  Carmella didn’t try to think or reason. When his lips touched hers, she was lost. Her hands closed around his arms and held him.

  Bilal’s knees felt weak and his heart was pounding. His hand moved to the back of her neck, his fingers captured by her dreads. He stroked a dread lovingly and then pulled back.